How to Make Google Translate Beatbox

Not sure if this falls in the category of Easter Egg or clever manipulation, but either way, there go our afternoons: Redditor harrichr has devised a scheme for turning Google Translate into a makeshift beatbox machine.

There’s nothing magical about this particular sequence, and there’s tons of room for experimentation: In German, anyway, “pv” and “zk” make complementary breathy sounds and clicks, respectively. Spaces add pauses. No idea why “bsch” makes that parrot-chirpy sound, but there you go. For some reason, German seems to be the best language for this, since German Google Translate rapidly strings vowelless consonants where it tends to enunciate each one in some other languages. (Which isn’t to say that there aren’t yet more tricks elsewhere.) After a little bit of playing around, “r,” “w,” and “f” seem to be promising letters for beatboxing purposes as well.